Flat switch insertable into a magazine and usable as part of a survey technique for readership of publications

ABSTRACT

A technique for supplying power from a battery to a transmitter included as part of an insert in a magazine which is used to monitor magazine readership. A switch in the insert is open when the magazine is closed to break the circuit to the transmitter. However, the switch is closed when the magazine is opened. Current is then supplied to the transmitter which emits an identification signal indicative of the magazine being read.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 827,757 filed Feb. 7,1986 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,314.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention is related to a technique for monitoring the exposure ofselected publications to readers and, more particularly, to a flatswitch used as part of an accurate, reliable electronic technique fordetermining when an individual who has been selected as a test subjecthas opened the publication so that he is likely to be reading it.

Various techniques are now in use to determine the readership ofselected publications. Such publications are typically magazines. Theterm "magazine" is used herein to include any type of publication.Publishers and advertisers require this information in order todetermine readership which, in turn, is useful to set printing runs,establish advertising rates, indicate geographic areas for concentratingresources, and provide an analysis of economic and social categories ofthe readership, and the like.

To currently obtain this information, such surveys are conductedprimarily in one of two ways. Firstly, individuals are contactedpersonally or by phone and interviewed as to their magazine preferences.However, this method is inaccurate because it relies on memory recall ofthe individuals which has been shown as suspect and insufficientlyaccurate. Moreover, once the interviewer reveals the magazine in whichhe is interested, the selected individual being interviewed may developa subjective inclination in favor of that magazine which may not in factbe true.

The second approach involves collecting a number of volunteer or paidindividuals who are expected to keep a diary of their reading habits.The diaries are then retrieved periodically from the individuals, andanalyzed. However, this approach relies exclusively on the accurate andcomplete record keeping of the particular individuals involved.Unfortunately, this also tends to be unreliable because peopleoccasionally forget to make entries, they may be distracted from doingit, or, occasionally, may simply not be inclined to make an entry.Therefore, the techniques conventionally used up to the present timesuffer from serious disadvantages which have caused concern about theaccuracy, and therefore the underlying value, of such surveys.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a switchusable as part of a technique for surveying magazine readership withimproved accuracy.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a flat switchusable as part of technique for surveying the readership of magazineswithout relying on the memory of the selected test subjects.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a flat switchusable as part of a technique for surveying the readership of selectedmagazines without pre-disposing the individual test subjects to aparticular magazine.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a flat switchusable as part of a technique for surveying the readership of magazineselectronically and without the need to conduct interviews or keepdiaries.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a flatswitch usable as part of a technique for surveying the readership ofmagazines without the selected individuals being aware that a testinvolving magazines is in progress.

One other object of the present invention is to provide a flat switchwhich is low in cost yet operates reliably.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a switchwhich is so flat that it can unobtrusively be inserted among the pagesof a closed magazine.

These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by asystem for surveying the readership of a designated magazine byindividuals selected as test subjects, comprising a transmitter unitsuitably sized for unobtrusive attachment to a copy of the designatedmagazine and including a power source. A transmitter means is connectedto the power source for emitting an identification signal which isunique to the designated magazine. A switch means is closed to supplypower from the power source to the transmitter means when the magazinecopy is opened. A receiver unit is adapted to be worn by each of theselected individuals and including detecting means for responding to theidentification signal to generate a control signal, memory means forstoring a signal representative of each detected occurrence of thecontrol signal, and a power source connected to the detecting means andthe memory means.

Another aspect of the invention is directed to a method for surveyingthe readership of a designated magazine by individuals selected as testsubjects, comprising the steps of attaching a transmitter to each copyof the designating magazine, supplying electrical power to thetransmitter in response to the magazine copy being opened, emitting fromthe transmitter an identification signal unique to the designatedmagazine, providing a receiver capable of distinguishing theidentification signal from other signals to generate a control signal inresponse thereto, and storing in response to the control signal a signalrepresentative of each occurrence of the control signal.

A further aspect of the invention is directed to a switch comprising afirst member capable of assuming a flat shape and a second membercapable of assuming a flat shape and having two opposite ends at leastone of which is connected to the first member. The second member has aportion thereof movable between a first position wherein the first andsecond members are lying flat against each other and a second positionwherein the second member is spaced from the first member. A pair offacing contacts is connected to the first member. A resilient means isconnected to at least one of the first and second members to bring thepair of contacts into engagement with each other. An insulating means isconnected to the portion of the second member for separating the pair ofcontacts from each other when the portion of the second member is in thefirst position and for permitting the pair of contacts to engage eachother when the portion of the second member is in the second position.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is directed to a switchcomprising a first member movable between a first position wherein it isflat and a second position wherein it is not flat. An elongated arm isconnected at one end to the first member and movable between a firstposition assumed when the first member is in its first position and asecond position assumed when the first member is in its second position.A first contact is mounted at a connection point to the first member,the connection point being at one distance from the juncture between thearm and the first member when the first member is in its first position,and at another distance when the first member is in its second position.A second contact is mounted on the arm at a first distance from thejuncture between the first member and the one end of the arm, the firstdistance being different than the one distance and equal to the anotherdistance.

Still another aspect of the present invention is directed to a switchcomprising a thin, foldable rectangular support having a surface withtwo opposite sides and two opposite ends extending between the sides. Afirst conductor is mounted on the surface along one of the side edges atless than a first given distance and extending from one of the endstoward the other end of the support. A second conductor is mounted onthe surface along the one side edge at more than the first givendistance and extending from the other end of the support toward its oneend. A third conductor is mounted on the surface along the other one ofthe edges at more than a second given distance and extending from theother end of the support toward its one end. A fourth conductor ismounted on the surface along the other one of the edges at less than thesecond given distance and extending from the one end toward its otherend. A fifth conductor is mounted on the surface at a third givendistance from the first conductor along the one end. A means is providedto connect the second and third conductors to each other. A means isprovided to connect the fourth and fifth conductors to each other. A asixth conductor is mounted on the surface at its other end and extendingtherealong for a distance greater than the third given distance. Withthe support being folded, the ends face each other with the sixthconductor spanning the gap between the first and fifth conductors. Aflat insulating means is removably interposed between the sixthconductor and the first and fifth conductors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit block diagram of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross section of one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross section of another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross section of still another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a cross section of yet another embodiment of the invention;and

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a further embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

To conduct the survey, persons are selected by the surveyingorganization based on certain criteria. These criteria can be, forexample, age, income, geographic location, sex, and level of education.The publisher and/or advertisers of the magazine may require an analysisof their readership which is broken down into one or more of thesecategories. The individuals who are approached to be test subjects aremerely asked to participate in a test the details of which are notexplained. Each person is told only that a requirement of the test isthe wearing of a certain article of clothing. Additional information ispreferably not supplied in order to avoid pre-disposing or prejudicingthe individual test subject toward or away from the aims of the survey.For example, if the individual were to be told that the survey relatesto magazines, then this might result in more attention being paid toperusing magazines than would be normal for that person. Even worsewould be the situation were the individual told the particular magazineinvolved in the survey. In order to avoid this problem, each individualis given an article of clothing to wear on a regular basis. For example,such an article of clothing might be a watch for men or a bracelet forwomen.

As depicted in FIG. 1, a receiver unit 10 and a transmitter unit 20cooperate to provide information relating to the readership of adesignated magazine by individuals who are selected to be test subjects.

The transmitter unit 10 is preferably constructed in the form of a flat,ultra-thin, card-sized insert for the magazine. Various types of insertsare commonly placed in magazine copies to advertise such products asperfume or to provide a convenient mailing postcard for a particularpurpose. Such a card is typically stapled into or adhesively secured toa page inside the magazine copy. In this manner, the transmitter unit iscamouflaged so that it provides no indication to the reader of its truepurpose. In fact, to enhance its camouflage it might be printed withsome type of advertisement or provided with a perfume-saturated flap.Internally, the "card" includes a battery 15 which powers transmitter 17when switch 16 is closed. Battery 15 must, of course, be of the flattype with dimensions which, for example, are those of a batterycurrently available as part of a Polaroid film pack. The structure ofswitch 16 is discussed in detail below.

Transmitter 17 can emit an analog or digital magazine identificationsignal via antenna 19. This signal is unique to that particularmagazine. Thus, Time Magazine is assigned a signal and Newsweek isassigned a different one. A transmitter 17 can be a microchip which issized small enough and flat enough to be accommodated in the "card". Inthe preferred embodiment, transmitter 17 is digital and generates aparticular digital code. Such transmitters are conventional and wellknown. Clothing tags in department stores currently contain suchtransmitter chips as part of an anti-theft system. As such, no furtherdetails of its circuitry and configuration is deemed necessary. Antenna19 is a miniature wire which, however, is sufficiently effective to emitthe desired signal for the necessary distance, as discussed below.

A receiver unit 20 is accommodated in the above-mentioned article ofclothing, such as a watch or bracelet. It serves some useful ordecorative function for its wearer so that the particular individual isunaware of its significance as far as the conduct of a survey isconcerned. A watch is ideal for this purpose because a timing circuit isrequired anyway for the desired operation of the circuitry, as explainedbelow.

Receiver unit 20 includes a receiving antenna 21 connected to a receiver23. Receiver 23 is a circuit which serves to distinguish the signalemitted by transmitter 17 from other signals which may be picked up byantenna 21. If transmitter 17 is analog in nature, then receiver 23would be a filter responsive to a very narrow range of frequencies.However, in the preferred digital embodiment, receiver 23 is a logiccircuit which responds only to the particular digital code emitted bytransmitter 17. Such circuitry is conventional and well known. As such,no specific circuit details are deemed necessary.

When receiver 23 detects a signal corresponding to that emitted bytransmitter 17, it sends a control signal to timer 25. Timer 25 is, inturn, connected to memory 27. When receiver 23 initially detects thesignal from transmitter 17 which identifies a particular magazine, itscontrol signal causes timer 25 to store in an address location of memory27 the exact time when the identification signal was first detected.When the identification signal is no longer picked up by receiver 23,timer 25 is controlled to store in the next address location of memory27 the exact time when that signal loss occurred. Thus, by substractingthe first time stored in the memory from the second time stored in thememory, a "reading period" is obtained. Each such reading period isrepresentative not only of the exposure of the magazine to the readerbut also of a "reading occurrence". An analysis can then be made of howmany times the individual test subject picked up the magazine and, also,the length of time the magazine was read for each occurrence.

In an alternative embodiment, receiver 23 is connected directly tomemory 27 via line 29 shown in broken lines. The control signal overline 29 from receiver 23 would be effective to store an occurrencesignal in specially assigned address locations of memory 27. Thus,memory 27 would have one set of address locations dedicated to"occurrences" and another set of address locations dedicated to "readingperiods".

The information content of a memory 27 is retrieved from it by terminal31. It should be understood that terminal 31 is normally not coupled tomemory 27 which is housed in the above-mentioned article of clothing.Terminal 31 is a remote unit which is coupled to the article of clothingby suitable plugs after it has been retrieved by the surveyingorganization from the individual test subject. A suitable plug isinserted into the watch, say, and the stored information is caused to betransferred from memory 27 to terminal 31. Terminal 31 can be anotherform of memory, a hard copy unit such as a printer, and/or a videodisplay device.

A feature of this invention is the low power with which the magazineidentification signal is emitted by transmitter 17. The transmittedsignal is to be detected by receiver 23 only when the magazine is withinapproximately one foot of the article of clothing containing receiverunit 20. This is accomplished by adjusting the relationship between thetransmitter power and the receiver sensitivity. The transmitter powercan, for example, be reduced so as to be effective with a conventionalreceiver only up to the mentioned distance. On the other hand, thesensitivity of receiver 23 can likewise be adjusted so that it is lowenough in comparison with what is available with a particulartransmitter to detect signals only within the above-mentioned distance.This aspect of circuit design is conventional and well known.Accordingly, no specific details of the circuitry are deemed necessary.

Various devices are currently available which are capable of performingthe tasks assigned to receiver unit 20. For example, Seiko markets amicroprocessor-driven timepiece which it calls the Datagraph 2001. Itincludes a 20K RAM memory capable of storing scheduling information.This memory could readily be adapted to receive the "occurrence" and/or"reading period" information for exposure of the magazine to anindividual test subject. In addition, this Seiko product comes with theDatagraph 2301 interface module capable of transmitting data between theDatagraph 2001 and a computer terminal. Seiko also markets a systemincluding the UC 2000 wrist terminal with 2K bytes of memory, achronograph, a four line display, and a partitioned memory; a UC 2100keyboard which can be coupled to the wrist terminal; and a UC 2200controller with additional 4K byte of memory, a built-in thermalprinter, a RAM with a monthly scheduler, and means to transmit betweenthe various units of the system. Such a unit can readily be modified forthis invention by attaching to it an antenna 21 of a suitable size andtype, and a microchip which functions as receiver 23.

Switch 16 is connected between battery 15 and transmitter 17. Whentransmitter unit 10 is inserted into the magazine and rests flat whilecompressed between its pages, switch 16 is open so that power frombattery 15 is not supplied to transmitter 17. This prevents unnecessarydraining of battery 15. When the magazine is opened, switch 16 includesa component which reacts to the decrease or removal of the compressiveforce previously applied to it by the pages of the closed magazine. As aresult of the magazine being opened, this sensing element acts to closeswitch 16 and, thereby, supply power from battery 15 to transmitter 17so that the above-discussed identification signal is emitted therefrom.Details of various embodiments of switch 16 capable of performing theabove-described functions are provided below with respect to FIGS. 2-6.

FIG. 2 shows switch 16 as including upper and lower members 201 and 203connected to each other at their ends. These are formed of a thin,flexible, and insulating material such as paper or plastic. Upper andlower members 201 and 203 can be pressed flat against each other to forma flat and thin card-like shape. Spring 205 between the upper and lowermembers spreads them apart whenever they are not pressed together by aforce greater than that of spring 205. It is that spaced position ofmembers 201, 203 which is depicted in FIG. 2. However, switch 16 assumesits flat shape when transmitter unit 10 is compressed between the pagesof the closed magazine because the force of spring 205 is less than thatapplied by the magazine to members 201, 203 when the magazine is closed.Spring 205 is also capable of being compressed substantially flat.

A pair of contacts 207, 211 is attached at one juncture of upper andlower members 201, 203. Contact 207 is attached to the free end of arm209 and contact 211 is mounted on the free end of arm 213. Thestationary ends of arms 209 and 213 are separated by an insulator block215. Arms 209 and 213 are resilient, and are biased toward each other soas to bring contacts 207 and 211 into engagement. Contact 207 isconnected to battery 15 by conductor 217 and conductive arm 209. Contact211 is connected to transmitter 17 by conductor 219 and conductive arm213. Therefore, when contacts 207 and 211 are in engagement, switch 16is closed and supplies power from battery 15 via conductor 217, arm 209,contacts 207 and 211, arm 213, and conductor 219 to transmitter 17.

In order to accomplish the purpose of switch 16 in preventingunnecessary battery drain, contacts 207 and 211 must be kept apart whilethe magazine is closed, and can be only allowed to engage each otherwhen the magazine is opened. To accomplish this task, an insulatingsheet 221 is provided having one end attached to upper member 201 atconnection point 222. Its length is selected so that in the spaced apartposition depicted by FIG. 2, it is not long enough to reach betweencontacts 207 and 211. However, when switch 16 is in its flattenedcondition and connection point 222 is brought closer to contacts 207 and211, sheet 221 is long enough to extend between contacts 207 and 211 inorder to keep them apart and prevent current from passing between them.

Various modifications of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2 are readilyapparent. For example, upper and lower members 201, 203 can be made of aresilient material so that spring 205 can be eliminated. Furthermore,such material can be conductive so that conductor 217 is not needed.However, in such a case, upper and lower members 201, 203 must beinsulated from each other at their juncture. Also, arms 209 and 213 neednot be formed of a conductive material, although resiliency isnecessary. In such a case, a conductor would be mounted on each of thearms and extending, respectively, along its length to contacts 207, 211.Furthermore, arms 209 and 213 need not even be resilient if springs areinserted between them and the respective upper and lower member, forexample.

FIG. 3 shows upper and lower members 301 and 303 attached to each otherat their ends. These are formed of the same material as is utilized formembers 201 and 203 discussed above with regard to FIG. 2. Spring 305,similar to spring 205 of FIG. 2, spreads apart members 301 and 303unless counteracted by sufficient force to flatten these members againsteach other. Contact 307 is affixed to upper member 301. Conductor 309connects battery 15 to contact 307. Conductor 309 runs along the outsideof upper member 301 and penetrates it to touch contact 307 mounted onthe inside of upper member 301. Contact 311 is mounted at the free endof arm 313. The other end of arm 313 is attached at a juncture of upperand lower members 301, 303. The length of arm 313 is selected such thatwhen switch 16 is in its flattened condition with upper and lowermembers 301 and 303 lying against each other, contact 307 lies on arm313 between contact 311 and the other end of arm 313. However, whenupper and lower members 301 and 303 assume the position depicted in FIG.3, arm 313 when swung upward toward upper member 301 will bring contact311 into engagement with contact 307. In order to do so, a spring 315 isconnected between lower member 303 and arm 313. Arm 313 is constitutedof an insulating material. A conductor 316 is attached to its undersideand runs along its length to connect to contact 311.

When switch 16 is in its flattened condition as it is compressed betweenthe pages of a closed magazine, upper and lower members 301 and 303 willbe pressed against each other. In that position, contact 307 bearsagainst insulated arm 313 and contact 311 bears against upper member 301which is also an insulator. Therefore, no power is delivered frombattery 15 to transmitter 17. However, when such compression is removedfrom switch 16, spring 305 will separate upper and lower members 301,303 into the position depicted in FIG. 3. At the same time, spring 315will swing arm 313 upward and bring contact 311 into engagement withcontact 307. In this position switch 16 is closed and power from battery15 is supplied to transmitter 17 via conductor 309, contact 307,contacts 311, and conductor 316.

Various modifications of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 3 are alsoreadily apparent. For example, arm 313 can be made of a resilientmaterial to, thereby, eliminate the need for spring 315.

FIG. 4 depicts switch 16 as including a flat surface 401 to which ismounted a movable arm 403 affixed at one end to surface 401. Spring 405biases arm 403 upward and away from surface 401. Contact 407 is mountedon surface 401 while contact 409 is connected to surface 401 by arm 411.Arm 411 is resilient and biases contact 409 toward contact 407. Contact407 is connected to battery 14 by conductor 413 which runs along theopposite side of surface 401 from that on which the above-mentionedcomponents are mounted. Conductor 413 also passes through a hole insurface 401 so that it can be connected to contact 407. Surface 401 isformed of an insulating material. Contact 409 is connected totransmitter 17 by conductor 415 and conductive arm 411. In order toseparate contacts 407 and 409, a sheet 417 is provided which isconnected at one end to arm 403. Its length is such that it can extendbetween contacts 407 and 409 when arm 403 is flattened against surface401. However, when arm 403 is allowed to swing upward away from surface401, sheet 417 will be withdrawn from between contacts 407 and 409thereby allowing them to engage and connect battery 15 to transmitter17.

FIG. 5 shows a resilient member 501 which can be compressed to a flatshape but has a natural arcuate shape like that shown in FIG. 5. Mountedon member 501 is a contact 503. Contact 505 is carried on a free end ofarm 507 having its other end attached to member 501. Member 501 isformed of a conductive material while arm 507 is an insulator. Thelength of arm 507 is such that when member 501 is in its flattenedcondition, contact 505 will rest on the upper surface of member 501between contact 503 and the connected end of arm 507. In that position,contact 505 will lie atop insulator 509 affixed to member 501. This isnecessary because member 501 is formed of a conductive material. If amaterial other than a conductive one is used for member 501, insulator509 can be eliminated. Contact 505 is connected to transmitter 17 byconductor 513 carried atop arm 507. The attached end of arm 507insulates conductor 513 from member 501. With this arrangement, whentransmitter unit 10 is compressed between the pages of a closedmagazine, member 501 will be flat and, therefore, arm 507 is ofinsufficient length to put contact 505 into engagement with contact 503.Instead, contact 505 rests on insulated material 509 to keep switch 16open. However, when the magazine is opened and member 501 is permittedto resume its normal arcuate shape, contact 505 will slide alonginsulator 509 until it abuts against contact 503 to close switch 16 andconvey power from battery 15 to transmitter 17. Arm 507 can either beresilient to bias it toward member 501 or it can be connected firmly tomember 501 so that the free end of the arm remains close to member 501if a relatively small arc is formed thereby.

If member 501 has at least its upper end formed of an electricallyinsulating material, pad 509 can be eliminated and arm 507 can be formedof a conductive material. However, a conductor would be needed toconnect battery 15 to contact 503.

The final embodiment of the invention is depicted in FIG. 6. It shows athin, flat and rectangular sheet 601 formed of an insulating materialsuch as paper. A number of flat conductors are carried on sheet 601. Forexample, these conductors can be formed of aluminum foil precisely cutand then pasted on. In the alternative, a metal layer can be depositedonto a sheet 601 by any well known deposition technique such as is, forexample, used in integrated circuit fabrication. U-shaped conductor 603has its legs 605 and 607 extending in the lengthwise direction of sheet601. Legs 605 and 607 are connected by bridge 609 running in thewidthwise direction of sheet 601 and spaced from the edge of end 611 ofsheet 601. Conductor 613 is placed along a side edge of sheet 601 andextends from end 615 thereof. Conductor 617 runs along the opposite sideedge of sheet 601 from conductor 613. The space between conductors 613and 617 is larger than the space between legs 605 and 607 of conductor603, for a purpose to be discussed below. Conductor 617 is extendedtoward conductor 613 at edge 615. However, conductors 613 and 617 remainseparated at edge 615 by a distance d. Therefore, conductors 613 and 617are not in contact with each other. Finally, conductor 619 is attachedto end 611 of sheet 601 in opposed alignment with the gap d betweenconductors 615 and 617 at end 615 of sheet 601.

When sheet 601 is folded in half, all of U-shaped conductor 603 isaccommodated within the space between conductors 613 and 617. Therefore,conductor 603 does not come into contact with any of the otherconductors on sheet 601. However, conductor 619 engages both conductors613 and 617 to bridge gap d therebetween. Therefore, conductor 619places conductors 613 and 617 in electrical contact.

As also shown in FIG. 6, battery 17 has one terminal connected toconductor 613 and another terminal connected to conductor 603.Transmitter 17 has one of its power terminals connected to conductor 603and its other power terminal connected to conductor 617. Therefore, whenconductor 615 and 617 remain electrically separated, no power can besupplied to transmitter 17 from battery 15. However, when conductor 619brings conductors 613 and 617 into electrical contact, current can flowfrom battery 15 to transmitter 17.

In order to keep conductor 619 from bridging the gap d betweenconductors 613 and 617, an insulating sheet 621 is positioned to liebetween ends 611 and 615 of sheet 601 so as to separate conductor 619from conductors 613 and 617. A portion of sheet 621 extends outward fromsheet 601 in its folded position. This outwardly extending portion ofsheet 621 is affixed to one page of the magazine while sheet 601 isaffixed to its facing page. Thus, when the two pages are separated asthe magazine is opened, sheet 621 will be pulled out from folded sheet601 thereby permitting conductor 619 to engage conductors 613 and 617 inorder to supply power from battery 15 to transmitter 17. A thin,resilient clip (not shown) can be used to bias ends 611 and 615 towardeach other when 601 is folded to insure positive contact betweenconductor 619 and conductors 613, 617.

Various modifications to the FIG. 6 embodiments are readily apparent.For example, sheet 601 need not be rectangular in shape, nor do theconductors affixed to it need to be linear. Various shapes of sheet 601can be used along with different arrangements of the conductors so longas the conductors do not come into contact when sheet 601 is folded andsheet 621 is in place.

Although a number of preferred embodiments have been described in detailabove, various modifications are readily apparent. For example, thespace defined between members 201, 203 in FIG. 2 and 301, 303 in FIG. 3can be fully enclosed and slightly pressurized. Springs 205 and 305 can,thus, be eliminated because the pressure will separate the members asthe magazine is opened. Also, conductors in some embodiments have beenshown as passing through holes in order to get from one side of a memberto another. Instead, such a conductor can run along the same side of amember as its contact, but in a line transverse to any other conductiveparts. This could readily be shown in a plan view of FIGS. 2-5. However,such a structure is clear and straightforward. Therefore, adding to thelength of this specification by providing more figures for this purposealone is not deemed necessary. Timer 25 can be dispensed with if for aparticular type of survey the period of time during which the individualtest subject is exposed to the magazine is not important. For such asurvey, receiver 23 would be directly coupled to memory 27 so that thelatter only stores the number of occurrences and not the time periodinvolved with each occurrence. Also, although receiver 23 has beendisclosed as responsive to only one identification signal fromtransmitter 17, it can also be responsive to several such identificationsignals. Each identification signal would, of course, be indicative of aparticular magazine. With such a configuration, the receiver 23 wouldprovide a unique control signal for each different type ofidentification signal it detects. Each control signal would storeinformation unique to that particular magazine in a location of memory27. Thus, information would be organized in memory 27 so that it couldbe retrieved and interpreted in categories separated according to eachmagazine of interest.

These and other such modifications are intended to be a part of thepresent invention as defined by the scope of the following claims.

I claim:
 1. A system for surveying the readership of a designatedmagazine by individuals selected as test subjects, comprising:atransmitter unit suitably sized for unobtrusive attachment to a copy ofsaid designated magazine and including a power source, a transmittermeans connected to said power source for emitting an identificationsignal which is unique to said designated magazine, and switch meanswhich is closed to supply power from said power source to saidtransmitter means when said magazine copy is opened; and a receiver unitadapted to be worn by each of said selected individuals and includingdetecting means for responding to said identification signal to generatea control signal, memory means for storing a signal representative ofeach detected occurrence of said control signal, and a power sourceconnected to said detecting means and said memory means.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein said transmitter unit is a thin, flat card adaptedto be inserted in said magazine copy.
 3. The system of claim 1, whereinsaid transmitter means includes an antenna.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein said transmitter means emits an identification signal powered sothat it is detected only when the transmitter unit is withinapproximately one foot from said receiver unit.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein said detecting means includes an antenna.
 6. The system ofclaim 5, wherein said detecting means includes a distinguishing meanscoupled to said antenna for responding only to said identificationsignal.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein said detecting means includesa distinguishing means for responding only to said identificationsignal.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein said receiver unit furthercomprises timing means coupled to said detecting means and said powersource for providing in response to said control signal a durationsignal corresponding to the length of time said identification signal issensed by said detecting means, said memory means being coupled to saidtiming means for storing said duration signal.
 9. The system of claim 8,wherein said detecting means senses said identification signal only whenthe receiver unit is within approximately one foot of the transmitterunit.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein said timing means provides theduration signal by generating a start signal indicative of when theidentification is first detected and a stop signal indicative of whenthe identification signal is no longer detected.
 11. The system of claim1, further including retrieval means for reading information stored insaid memory means.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein said detectingmeans senses said identification signal only when the receiver unit iswithin approximately one foot of the transmitter unit.
 13. The system ofclaim 1, further comprising timing means connected to said power sourcefor providing, in response to said control signal, a duration signalcorresponding to the period of time said identification signal is sensedby the detecting means.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein said memorymeans stores each detected occurrence of the identification signal alongwith its corresponding duration signal.
 15. A method for surveying thereadership of a designated magazine by individuals selected as testsubjects, comprising the steps of:attaching a transmitter to each copyof said designating magazine; supplying electrical power to saidtransmitter in response to said magazine copy being opened; emittingfrom said transmitter an identification signal unique to said designatedmagazine; providing a receiver capable of distinguishing saididentification signal from other signals to generate a control signal inresponse thereto; and storing in response to said control signal asignal representative of each occurrence of said control signal.
 16. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the storing step comprises storing inresponse to said control signal the duration of each occurrence of saididentification signal.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the receiverdetects the identification signal emitted by the transmitter only whenthe receiver is within approximately one foot from the transmitter. 18.The method of claim 15 wherein the storing steps comprises the steps ofstoring each occurrence of the control signal and storing the timeduration of each such occurrence.